MWCB - Nike Guerilla Tennis 1995

Central to the brief was the fact that tennis was a rather quiet sport, with fans asked to be silent before each serve. At that time, Sampras and Agassi had one of the most dynamic and energetic rivalries on the courts. Nike wanted to show how this energy and excitement was disrupting the tennis world.

Spike's location team had their sights set on New York, but it proved to be too costly and complicated. In San Francisco, they were allowed to block off four downtown blocks for a day. After the spot was released, most people assumed it had been shot in New York.

After Spike filmed Sampras and Agassi getting out of the cab, the entire shoot continued to expand from that point on. With so many cameras filming in different directions, all the agencies and clients watched from a nearby rooftop so that none of them ended up in the background.

The trickiest part of the shoot was the end, when the city bus crashed through the net. At that point, a large number of people were watching at the intersection. So a lot of planning had to go into making sure the shot was successful and no one was hurt.

The spot had lasting appeal because everyone remembered the rivalry between Sampras and Agassi. At the time, they were competing against each other in one final after another. Championship match after championship match. Their styles were different. Their personalities were different. But both played and fought for every point with everything they had.

The spot won a Silver Lion at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, and 20 years later, a rematch was recreated in the streets of New York.